Registration
BIOC 426 is offered autumn, winter, and spring quarter. Registration for BIOC 426 during autumn quarter is restricted during Period 1 registration for students with senior class standing; registration for BIOC 426 for spring quarter is restricted during Period 1 registration for students who have a graduation application on file for spring or summer quarter graduation. Students need to meet with one of the chemistry/biochemistry advisers to complete a graduation application. Period 2 registration is not restricted in any quarter, and any student meeting the prerequisites may register if space is available.
Exemption Criteria
Download the BIOC 426 Exemption Form
Biochemistry BS majors are encouraged to substitute two or more quarters of undergraduate research experience (399 or 499) for the required BIOC 426 laboratory. The BS Biochemistry major will usually accept two quarters of 499 credit as one quarter of BIOC 426 lab. Past research exemptions have come from many different departments, including: Biochemistry, Chemistry, Biology, Microbiology, Pharmacology, Immunology, Biological Structure, Physiology and Biophysics, Genome Sciences, Medicine, Pathology, Neurology, Surgery, Medicinal Chemistry, Pediatrics, Radiation Oncology, Comparative Medicine, Periodontics, Bioengineering, and Urology.
Research at affiliated institutions such as Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC), Seattle Biomedical Research Institute (SBRI), Seattle Children's Hospital, Institute of Systems Biology (ISB), Benaroya Research Institute (BRI) and Harborview Medical Center (HMS) has been approved.
Exemption criteria includes:
- At least two consecutive quarters of research experience is required. Typically, it takes a full quarter to launch a new project and to begin making significant progress. To assure a meaningful research experience, a minimum of six credits of 499 or the lab time equivalent are required, where one credit corresponds to three hours of laboratory work per week. For undergraduate research when 499 is earned, two quarters of 499 recorded with CR are required: for departments that grade 499 numerically, two quarters of 499 are required with a minimum grade of 2.5 in each quarter.
- No specific research experience is absolutely required examples of appropriate areas include:
- biochemical techniques
- separation and purification techniques
- immunological techniques
- biophysical and computational techniques
- molecular biological techniques
- cell biology techniques
- whole organism techniques (e.g. using yeast, fruit flies, worms, frogs, zebrafish, mice, or plants)
- An equivalent industrial research experience will also be accepted, with two months of continuous industrial research experience considered equivalent to two consecutive quarters of 499. You will need to provide a detailed description of the work you did in the lab along with contact information for your research supervisor and your supervisor's signature on the exemption form attesting to your experience and knowledge.
- Applications for exemption should be submitted to the Undergraduate Advisers via email at chemadv@uw.edu. Application forms are available in 303 Bagley or at bit.ly/UWBIOC426. Note that the BIOC 426 lab tends to fill quickly so it is important to submit the exemption petition well in advance before registration begins for autumn and spring quarter.